Butler-Dines family will be missed

Next week, two important community members are leaving Durango. Winston Dines and Greg Butler have decided it best to live closer to aging parents in Salt Lake City. Being residents for more than 20 years, they touched many lives.

Beginning when their daughters, Rebecca and Katherine, were in preschool, Winston was an active member of the Durango Early Learning Center board of directors. She was instrumental with the start of Durango Nature Studies, and spent countless hours supporting the local gymnastics studio where the Boys & Girls Club now is located.

Dines and Butler were quite active parents at Needham Elementary and Miller Middle School. Later, as their children grew, Greg joined the facilities department at Durango High School and Winston headed High School Leadership La Plata. Most recently, Winston had been administering tests in Durango, Pagosa, Cortez and Ignacio.

More importantly than this résumé are the personal lives and families that they contributed to so freely. They are parents to many children of Durango as they took children into their homes, fed them and cared for them generously as if their own. Many of those children now have children of their own.

Lacking any familial support, I could not have been a parent in this town if not for Greg and Winston. I am sure many people feel the same way. Please send kind, parting words of appreciation to the Butler-Dines family as they will be sorely missed.